Licinio Refice

Licinio Refice (b Patrica, nr Frosinone, 12 Feb 1883; d Rio de Janeiro, 11 Sept 1954). Italian composer and conductor.

After studying composition and organ at the Rome Conservatory, graduating in 1910 and in the same year taking orders, he taught at the Scuola Superiore (later the Instituto Pontificio) di Musica Sacra (1912–50) and was maestro di cappella at S Maria Maggiore (1911–47). In his later years he made several international tours as a conductor (sometimes with the Cantori Romani di Musica Sacra); the last of them took him to Brazil, where he died. Refice's output chiefly comprises church music for chorus and organ. Regarded as Perosi's heir, he was supported by the Vatican, which widely propagated his masses Regina Martyrum (1920), In honorem Sancti Eduardi Regis (1933, dedicated to Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli, later Pope Pius XII), In honorem Beatae Theresiae (1938) and In honorem Virginis Perdolentis (1940). His style is a mingling of archaism, with lines overtly derived from plainsong, and late Romantic and 20th-century harmony. Dramatic gifts led him to write many ‘mysteries’, ‘biblical scenes’, oratorios and two operas on hagiographical subjects, both (along with many oratorios) to librettos by his friend and biographer Emidio Mucci. Cecilia (1922–3) was performed in Rome in 1934 with Claudia Muzio in the title role. The success of the opera caused Refice to undertake another, Margherita da Cortona, performed with success at La Scala in 1938. Both show an interesting juxtaposition of mysticism and passion, a careful reconstruction of historical settings and a sensitivity in the orchestral writing; Cecilia, in particular, won a degree of international fame.